Abu Sayyaf

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New York, December 4, 2013--The Committee to Protect
Journalists welcomes the release today of a reporter working for Al-Arabiya
news channel who, along with two crewmembers, was abducted by Islamist
militants 18 months ago.

CPJ is monitoring with concern the news coverage of Baker Abdulla
Atyani, a Pakistan-based Jordanian Al-Arabiya TV journalist, and his two
Philippine crew members, Rolando Letrero and Ramelito Vela, who have been
unaccounted for since June 12.

Atyani, Letrero, and Vela left their hotel in Jolo, in the
southern Philippines, to interview a commander for the militant Abu Sayyaf, a
banned Islamic separatist group in the region, according to local and
international news reports. The three refused offers of a security detail from
local authorities, the reports said.

They have not returned. Various news accounts report them as "missing," "kidnapped," and a link between Abu Sayyaf and Al-Qaeda.

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Suspected
militants fired at two low-flying military helicopters in Basilan province in
the southern Philippines
on August 16, 2009, injuring two journalists who were on board, according to local
and international reports. The militants were thought to belong to the Abu
Sayyaf Group, which is allegedly linked to Al-Qaida.

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New York, June 9, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned a militant group's abduction of three journalists from Philippine network ABS-CBN in the southern Philippine province of Sulu on Sunday.

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Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by recent statements made by presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye and the Philippine National Police (PNP) that many of the cases of journalists killed in the country have been solved and that the cases are unrelated to the issue of press freedom.

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New York, November 15, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns the two fatal attacks on Philippine journalists over the weekend, the latest killings in an already record-breaking year for violence against the press in the Philippines.

An unidentified gunman shot photographer Gene Boyd Lumawag, of the MindaNews news service, in the head, killing him instantly on Friday, November 12, in Jolo, the capital of the southern Sulu Province.

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An unidentified gunman shot photographer Lumawag, of the MindaNews
news service, in the head, killing him instantly in Jolo, the capital
of the southern Sulu Province.

Lumawag was photographing the sunset at the pier in Jolo on the last
day of Ramadan in the Muslim-majority area when he was killed by a
single bullet to the head, according to local news accounts. Lumawag,
26, had traveled to Jolo with another reporter on November 10 to work
on a video documentary about transparency and local governing practices
for the U.S.-based Asia Foundation.

Sulu Province, comprising a group of islands 310 miles (500 kilometers)
south of the capital, Manila, is a bastion for the Islamic separatist
group Abu Sayyaf, The Associated Press reported. Abu Sayyaf has been
linked to al-Qaeda and has made headlines in recent years with high-profile
kidnappings for ransom. The island province is also a stronghold for
Jemaah Islamiah, the militant Islamic group.

The exact motive for Lumawag's murder was unclear, and local police
and army spokesmen put forward different theories. Army investigators
told Mindanews Chairwoman Carolyn Arguillas, who had accompanied Lumawag,
that they suspected Abu Sayyaf members were responsible for the killing.
The head of the local antiterrorism unit, Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala,
also claimed in local news reports that the gunman's description matched
that of a wanted local Abu Sayyaf operative.

But in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, local
police head, Chief Superintendent Vidal Querol, said that a corruption
story the two journalists were pursuing was the likely motive. Local
news accounts also speculated that Lumawag might have been mistaken
as a spy or member of the military because his clothes resembled fatigues,
and he spoke Filipino instead of the local Tausig language.

The vicious murder of Wall Street Journal
reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan focused international attention on
the dangers faced by journalists covering the U.S. "war on terror," yet
most attacks on journalists in Asia happened far from the eyes of the
international press. In countries such as Bangladesh and the
Philippines, reporters covering crime and political corruption were as
vulnerable to attack as those reporting on violent insurgency. Seven
journalists were killed in 2002 for their work in Asia.

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Raucous and uninhibited, the Philippine press
continues to be one of Asia's freest. There are few government controls
on the media, newspapers do not have to be licensed, and broadcasters
are largely left alone. The private Association of Philippine
Broadcasters regulates itself, unlike in many other Asian countries,
where the government performs this function.

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New York, October 2, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about the safety of television reporter Carlo Lorenzo and cameraman Gilbert Ordiales, who went missing on the southern island of Jolo, Sulu Province, on September 28. CPJ fears that the journalists may have been kidnapped.

Lorenzo and Ordiales, who work for GMA television broadcasters, were in Jolo to report on rebel groups in the region, according to Philippine and international news reports. The journalists were last seen after they met a group of armed men in the town of Indanan, according to an account by their driver. The driver left the group momentarily to check on his car, and when he returned, the journalists and the armed men had disappeared.